Back Injury Among Healthcare Workers:

Causes, Solutions, and Impacts

William Charney, Consultant, Camino Island, Washington, USA
Anne Hudson, Consultant, Coos Bay, Oregon

Dedication:

"This book is dedicated to the thousands of back-injured healthcare workers who have sacrificed their well-being, and often their careers, to painful injuries from manually lifting patients. It is the authors' hope that this book will lead to implementation of No Manual Lifting of patients in hospitals, nursing homes, and home health through the use of technology by nursing staff or specially-trained Lift Teams. We also hope that states will correlate the national nursing shortage with nursing injury and will pass Zero Lift for Healthcare legislation to halt the unnecessary loss of healthcare workers to preventable disabling injuries. Finally, we look forward to the day when nursing organizations will negotiate for retention of back-injured nurses, including, when necessary, provision by employers of Permanent Light Duty nursing work."

"The most definitive thing I've seen on back injuries in healthcare."
 
 "Back Injury among Healthcare Workers...should be in the library for all nursing faculty
as you are teaching skills that are not evidence-based." 
Pat Quigley, PhD, ARNP, CRRN, President Florida Nurses Association 

“Our project planning group relied on the excellent information in your book when starting up our lift teams.  We have been going strong for nearly 2 years, and the success we've had is very similar to what studies have shown!  The book is very helpful and I'm endorsing it."  
Benjamin Richards, Safety Officer, Oregon Health & Science University.  7-27-04

"I think nursing is the only profession that when you get injured on the job - they throw you away!  We should have the same protection as fire fighters, police officers, etc!"  
Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio, RN, PhD.  8-23-06.

 "I have to tell you it was a thrill meeting you again at the Florida conference. 
You are the best advocate out there.  Keep up the work.” 
Paula Pless, Director of Zero Lift Programs.  Kaleida Health.  Buffalo, New York.  5-17-07. 

"You speak so well, Anne, you make a very difficult and shocking subject
actually funny which probably makes it more heart wrenching."  
Louise O'Shea, President/CEO, O'Shea and Associates,
Manual Handling Risk Management, Australia and USA.  5-24-07. 

Please email comments on the book to Anne at anne@wingusa.org.
Comments will be posted by date received unless the sender requests to sign another way.

Feedback on Back Injury among Healthcare Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts:

They have this equipment in the nursing home but when it’s time to lift my mother, a couple of them just do it themselves.”  8-11-07
 
“I’m a physical therapist with a back problem.  All of my discs are okay, except L4/L5.  It’s dehydrated and shrunk down about half way.”  8-10-07
 
“One of the nurses at our rehab center just called in today with a back injury.  She’s going to the doctor.”  8-7-07
 
“Two of our surgical ICU nurses blew out their discs.  All of that expertise and they can’t work SICU anymore.”  8-3-07
 
“I’m an EMT and have had two back surgeries.”  7-31-07
 
“I’m a fireman with the Metro Fire Department.  We have stretchers that raise with a button but the ambulance service I also work for has the kind we have to raise ourselves.”  7-31-07
 
“I’m a nurse tech and had back surgery on L4/5 and L5/S1.”  7-31-07
 
“We have all this beautiful equipment sitting around but people don’t use it.  We’re short-staffed.  It takes too much time.”  7-31-07
 
“I’m a doctor.  One of our ICU nurses just had back surgery and within 36 hours had re-herniated.  When she couldn’t void, her doc was saying he thought it was her meds.  I asked, ‘From what I know about cauda equina, can you tell me why it isn’t cauda equina?’  And she was right back in surgery.”  7-30-07
 
“A girl lifted me by herself to the wheelchair and she nearly fell.  She almost fell and practically threw me into the wheelchair.  If you asked her, she would say it was all right, that everything was fine.”  7-25-07
 
“My mom’s a nurse and had a heavy-set person.  My mom kind of broke their fall and it wasn’t a good thing.  She wasn’t injured too, too bad as she’s still doing what she’s doing, nursing in the hospital.”  7-25-07
 
“I’ve been tested for sciatic nerve pain.  They say it’s negative.  There’s always pain.  I have pain shooting down my back and down my leg.  Sometimes it flares up when I might bend over too fast.  Sometimes I can’t stand up straight.  I’m handicapped two or three days at a time.  I have a 12-year-old son.  I went into nursing to take care of him.  I can’t be disabled at 30.”  7-18-07 
 
“It never hurt back then, when I was first in nursing.  I was like almighty.  I’m very cautious now.”  7-18-07
 
“It’s the wear and tear over the years that gets you.  I tell those young nurses to lift the bed, don’t be bending over like that.”  7-16-07
 
“Workers’ comp denies claims, hoping the hurt nurses will give up and go away.”  7-16-07
 
“When you’re injured, it’s almost better to go through your own insurance.  One nurse was down on the floor, unable to move, before workers’ comp allowed the surgery she needed.  She still can’t feel her feet.”  7-16-07 
 
“If you’re in nursing 10 or 15 years, you’ll be hurt.  It’s a hazard of the trade.”  7-12-07
 
“I can’t believe they’re still lifting the old-fashioned way.”  7-11-07
 
“They should have a battery thing to lift from the floor to the gurney.  Two big men lifted me on a blanket.”  7-11-07
 
“My nurse friend got away from all that moving and carrying before it did her in.  She went back to school and into another area of nursing.”  7-10-07
 
“My daughter worked as a nurse in the ER for 15 years but has changed to working with a cardiologist in the office.  She hurt her back and other things working in the ER.”  7-6-07
 
“It just burns me up that men in factories don’t lift a finger.  They use forklifts.  But women with patients lift hundreds of pounds.  And when they’re damaged by lifting, they’re fired.  Men used to have to lift in factories, but when they found out it was damaging, they instituted machinery.”  6-27-07
 
“I’m an injured nurse with a dead person’s bone in my neck and don’t want to see this happen to anyone else.”  6-22-07
 
“I see the value in preventing on-the-job injuries.”  6-22-07
 
“This movement is long overdue.  We’ve lost a lot of nurses over a lot of years.”  6-22-07
 
“If you have a man in nursing, you just use him up until he can’t lift anymore.”  6-22-07
 
“I tell nurses, if you want to be macho, go right ahead and lift.  But if you get injured, you might not get any compensation, so you just go right ahead.”  6-22-07
 
“At first I wasn’t too sure I had any use for the equipment.  Then I saw how many nurses were saved from being injured.  I’m a believer now.”  6-22-07
 
“Our lift team has been a wonderful asset to our unit, and we don’t share!”  6-22-07
 
“With the equipment and our new policy, I can walk out at the end of the day instead of crawling out, even if my tongue’s hanging out to the side.”  6-22-07
 
“We need to educate our families.  They say it’s your job to lift up grandma.”  6-22-07
 
“I tell nurses, we have the lift, use it.  It’s your friend.”  6-22-07
 
“If we’re rushing to get our work done, think of the time to recover if you get injured.”  6-22-07
 
“JCAHO saw three nurses lifting a patient while the lift sat in the hall.  JCAHO sited the hospital, not for manual lifting, but for not following their own ‘No Lift’ policy.”  6-22-07

“You’re doing a wonderful thing with all those backs you’re saving.”  6-15-07
 
“I huffed and puffed, but the wheelchair with the 300-pound man didn’t budge.  Finally, I got it rolling.”  5-30-07
 
"My neck is wrecked after 30 years.  In the past year, THREE other staff members in my department (all over 40 years old) had neck or back surgeries."  5-25-07
 
“I feel like somebody has stripped the skin off the back of my leg, all the way down to the back of my heel and it’s numb.  I feel like I'm walking on bone.”  5-15-07

“My daughter is a CNA at a care center.  Every night she comes home with back pain.  She says they’ve fired all the ones who file for workers’ comp.”  5-9-07
 
“Nurses have more back injuries than coal miners.  I’m a doctor who’s worked in coal mining country and can tell you that nurses have more back injuries.  Miners have more head injuries.”  5-9-07
 
“I sure am watching out for my back now.  I’m not taking any more chances.  I wonder why we don’t have those things to move patient beds like they move carts around with at the store.”  5-5-07
 
“Lifts are such a huge need.  If caregivers become unable to lift and care for them at home, it becomes a crime for insurance not to cover the lifts.  As a PT, lifting these kids day in and day out wears on your body.  Paying up front for the equipment always pays off better than at the hind end.”  5-4-07
 
“It needs to be told, and taught, and reiterated again and again and again until they get it.  Then, start all over with the new ones.”  5-1-07
 
“I’m an EMT.  My worst lift was a woman about 350 pounds.  She broke her ankle and was on the floor, wedged between the bed and the dresser.  She couldn’t help at all.  I had to just pull her up and out.”  4-25-07
 
“When an EMT can’t lift, there’s just no more use for them.”  4-25-07
 
“My first injury was when I was a student 19 years old lifting a patient.”  4-19-07
 
“There are lifts now in the nursing school where I teach.  The students say we’re not going to lift and we’re not going to get injured.”  4-19-07
 
“Well, they hurt the wrong nurse.”  4-16-07
 
“The standard reply about nurse injury is ‘We budgeted for it.’  We’ve become insensitive to people’s lives and bodies and careers over money.”  4-16-07 
 
“If they knew they would have to take responsibility, and had to find other positions for injured nurses, they would take better care of them and not let them get hurt.”  4-16-07
 
“I got a call from a nurse who was being denied workers’ comp for a back injury based on degenerative changes seen on her x-rays.  It was amazing that this was just discussed at the conference and I get a call.  How horrible for her, as you are aware.”  4-12-07
 
“Aren’t all nurses walking around like that, with a hurt back?!”  4-7-07
 
"I witnessed first hand with my grandfather how difficult and dangerous the task 'care giving' becomes, especially for nurses and spouses."  4-4-07
 
"Thank you for your fight to protect the very people who have dedicated their careers to helping other people."  4-4-07 
 
“Nurses who get back injured are throw-aways.  They’re given no more consideration.  It’s over for them.”  4-2-07 
 
“In various orientations, I've heard physical therapists say that nurses' injuries were their own fault for lifting ‘improperly.’ ”  3-31-07
 
“Worker bee nurses don’t get it until they get hurt and get worked over by the system.”  3-29-07
 
“They don’t advertise nurses as part body builders.”  3-27-07
 
“I have done one of my safe patient handling equipment focus groups.  The nurses brought up several times how frequently they watch out for their patients’ safety while ignoring their own.”  3-24-07
 
“There’s no more crippling career than being a nurse in a hospital.  It’ll ruin you.”  3-22-07
 
“When I was in nurse aide training, my back really hurt.  I thought I’m not going to be able to do this.  Some of the people are really heavy.  I had worked only four days as a CNA when I quit.  I knew I couldn’t stay in that work.  I had wanted to be a nurse.”  3-22-07
 
“Back injury is the biggest disability faced by nurses.  They warned us first thing in nursing school that back injury is the biggest risk, right before teaching us to lift.”  3-20-07
 
“Powerful, powerful presentation in Orlando.  I was so proud to know you.  Your story continues to make me weep and work harder.”  3-19-07
 
“It’s cheaper to do the maintenance with injury prevention than to do repairs on ‘broken’ nurses.”  3-17-07
 
“I read your book three or four months ago.  It changed the direction I was headed.”  3-15-07
 
“They don’t do right when nurse aides hurt their back.  They say they’ll help but don’t come up with a job you can do.”  3-15-07
 
“Yeah, team!  What do you do with moving 300 and 400 pound people?  You have to get injured somewhere along the line.”  3-9-07
 
“When the CNA wanted the two of us to pull the 300 pound patient up in bed, I said I’m not doing it.  I care about my back and I thought we needed more help.  But she said I’ll do it myself, and she did.”  3-8-07
 
“I love you for all the good that you do for nurses.  May God bless you.”  3-6-07
 
“Now I’m providing in-home care for a man about 200 pounds who doesn’t get up at all.  He helps turn but I still have to pull him over and pull him up.  When I wake up in the morning, my back just kills me.  The doctor says there’s nothing wrong with me, that it’s just my weight.  I’ve had times when my legs go totally numb and like electricity shooting up my leg.  They took an x-ray, but I’ve never had an MRI.”  3-6-07
 
“We call the lift on our unit the ‘Anne Hudson Memorial Lift.’  If a patient is down, and nurses start to lift, I say, wait, let’s get the Anne Hudson Memorial Lift.”  3-2-07
 
“Back injury, but still limping along.  Able to do Case Management but some days are getting to be really, really hard.”  2-27-07

“I’m starting care giving again.  I love taking care of old people, but now my back is hurting again.”  2-22-07
 
“We have gait belts.  And they teach you to stand behind people, to be ready to catch them, and let them slide down your body, if they fall.”  2-22-07
 
“I quit CNA work at the care center because of lifting.  There were two-person lifts that they wanted me to do alone.  They expected me to lift people twice my size by myself.  I said I’m not doing it.”  2-22-07
 
“You are the vanguard for healthcare workers’ safety.”  2-15-07
 
“A young 20-year-old nurse aid had surgery for two discs that ruptured from lifting a patient.  She was planning to go into nursing but not anymore, not after being injured so bad.  She said I’m too young for this.”  2-14-07
 
“It’s business.  Nurses when they get injured are put out like any other worker.  Hospitals are businesses.  It’s all about the money.”  2-14-07
 
“What you trained to do, what you moved heaven and earth to be allowed to do, is gone.  You fought to get that.  You fought to keep your job, but it’s gone.  Getting disabled by lifting leaves you out of nursing and in pain.  It has to crush you.”  2-3-07     
 
“I can’t put my mother-in-law to bed anymore.  My back hurts and I can’t do that.  I can’t roll her over to change her diaper.  The aides struggle, leaning across the hospital bed.  It has to hurt their back.  Underpaid, overworked, how can they keep on being so nice?”  2-3-07
 
“Every time there’s a new nurse, I whip out your book and say, to let you know we’re serious about back injuries.  Same with the new unit manager.  I whipped out your book and said, to be sure we’re on the same page about back injuries.”  1-28-07
 
“Nurses are getting older and they’re more vulnerable.  You’d think they would keep us for our experience, but they don’t.  They want to get rid of us because we cost them more money.  All the nurses are new on my old unit.  New nurses are teaching the younger ones.  It’s scary.”  1-27-07
 
“In our department, we have nothing, no equipment to move them.  We just drag them over.”  1-27-07
 
“I hurt my brachial plexus nerve pulling about a 300 or 400 pound woman to sit up in bed.  The workers’ comp doctor put down that it was my shoulder.  Then, they tested my shoulder and said full range of motion.  I got nothing for it but still can’t use my hand and arm like before.”  1-26-07
 
“I can tell you that what you’re doing is making a difference in patient care.  It’s really helping.  Keep up the good work.”  1-26-07
 
“In the OR, we use an air matt for moving really obese patients, but with other regular patients we still move them ourselves.”  1-25-07
 
“It is my opinion that injured nurses can benefit corporations dramatically with their knowledge.  But the problem is, these corporations can hire someone else for a lot less money.  It is all about money and not the people or the patients.”  1-24-07
 
“I have an under 20 pound lift limit and other restrictions.  My job said I can't come back unless I can do 100%.  I know I will always have back pain.  I’m doing exercises and stretches daily to be as flexible as I can.  I also have severe sciatic nerve damage.”  1-19-07 
 
“I think that the hospitals need to address RN's already injured with chronic back problems.  At my local hospital, a couple years ago, they decided there was absolutely NO LIGHT DUTY at all for RN's.  So, it’s either do your job or leave....”  1-18-07
 
“I really thank you for saving our backs.  This was a long time in coming.  You've done terrific, and stated all the facts very eloquently and surprisingly so true and scary when you see it on paper!!!!!”  1-18-07
 
“Safer moving and handling is possible with the right attitude and well-maintained equipment.  I am sure there are many nurses like myself who would still be working in a job that we loved had we avoided back injury while at work.”  1-17-07
 
“Thank you for all the information on moving and handling.  I know this will all help with my in-service and plan to drive the message home regarding safe moving and handling.”  1-14-07
 
“You just don’t get it, until it happens to you.”  1-13-07
 
“Your book helped me a lot.  It was a real eye-opener!”  1-3-07
 
“Not reporting injuries enables employers to keep hurting people.”  1-3-07
 
“I’m a nurse with a hurt back from work.  I didn’t claim my injury because I wanted to keep my job.  My co-workers are great people and help me when they see that I’m hurting.”  1-3-07
 
“I think that last move was just the ‘final straw’ from years of cumulative lifting.  I limp from pain down my leg.”  1-3-07
 
“My mother is a nurse.  Her skull was messed up.  Her back and skull were all messed up by somebody hopped up on crack in the ER.”  1-2-07
 
“I know many back-injured nurses, especially ones who have worked the hospital setting, who just accept back injury as being part of a nurse's job!!  One nurse had about four or five back surgeries, and just plugs along doing her job!!!  I believe my neck/back will just continue deteriorating until I will eventually be forced out of nursing all together and be forced to deal with the government and their BS!!!”  12-30-06
  
“With my neck and back injuries sustained working as a nurse, I pray to remain working as long as possible; I try to believe that what I do good for people will come around and take care of me eventually.”  12-30-06
 
“Individuals in poor finances or in poor health are not given much consideration.  In disasters, large numbers of victims are visible and get help, but injured nurses are scattered.  If they were together where they could all be seen, they’d get more attention and might get some help.”  12-23-06
 
“I saw your letter in American Nurse.  I never knew your whole story.  It’s surprising that nurses don’t talk about these things.  There’s so much secrecy around injuries, things we should be talking about.”  12-23-06  
 
“Just thought you might like to know that your stories are being noticed by other injured workers in the world.  http://wcbcanada.com/modules/WCB-BB/viewtopic.php?t=3424”  12-19-06
 
“Someone needs to study the economic impact of injury to the community.  I don’t buy new cars or land anymore.  Think what happens to the restaurants.  I don’t eat out anymore.  I just don’t buy things.  It’s an economic disaster when someone with a good wage, like an RN, can’t work anymore.”  12-18-06
 
“One nurse wrecked her back and took a big pay cut to go work for a nursing home.”  12-18-06 
 
“A nurse I knew hurt her back and committed suicide.  She became extremely depressed in her situation and committed suicide.  She had pain medication and that can make you depressed.  Until I was injured and lost my job, I couldn’t understand.  Now I can definitely see how it could happen.  It can be because of chronic pain and from chronic grief for what she lost. ”  12-18-07
 
“My nurse friend has had three spinal fusions and never filed for workers’ comp.  She said she got care from her regular insurance instead of going through the ‘pain clinic concentration camp’ and everything else workers’ comp puts you through.”  12-18-06
 
“Truck drivers do a lot of things besides just driving.  They load and unload, raise hoods, tailgates, do chains, and lots of things.  The doctor said my back injuries from nursing were worse than any truck driver’s back he’s ever seen.”  12-18-06
 
“Thank you for all your work on behalf of injured nurses.”  12-16-06
 
“After 35 years of nursing, I have chronic low back pain and stiffness with multiple bulging discs per MRI.  My cervical spine also has several bulging discs and severe degenerative changes.  I’ve been off caring for a family member and dread the risk of more injury when I return to work.”  12-16-06
 
“No hospitals in my area have lift teams or widespread use of assistive devices.”  12-16-06
 
“The notion that hospitals are humanitarian is false…it’s an industry.  They’re in it for the bucks, the big bucks.”  12-4-06
 
“All nurses will have a back injury if they work the floor long enough.  Every nurse I know has a back problem.”  11-24-06
 
“I’m a nurse with two herniated discs.  I don’t know if lifting patients did it, but it sure didn’t help.  Now I can’t ride my horses or lift anything at all.”  11-24-06
 
“I think it’s horrible the way injured healthcare professionals are treated.  They’re all just kicked out the door.”  11-24-06
 
“A lot is being written today about the devastation to nurses’ lives caused by injuries from lifting.”  11-22-06
 
“After I injured my back they said be careful.  But how can you be careful with your back when you have to lift people?  It’s part of your job.  You have to do it.”  11-17-06
 
“The doctor didn’t do an x-ray, MRI, or any test.  He said if everybody got an MRI, they’d all have a ruptured disk.  But it was my back, my leg going numb, and my bowels not in control.  I went to another doctor, and got out of nursing.”  11-17-06 
 
“It never made sense, with the number of nurses in health care, why we are not a powerful group.  We should be pulling elections.  We should have power.  We’re so busy getting injured that we don’t have a backbone.  It is shocking.  You feel so discarded.”  11-1-06
 
“I was scheduled for spine surgery but workers’ comp said they wanted another IME.  So I went to that and now I have to appeal their denial again.  My doctors want me to have a discogram but workers' comp is refusing to review the request.”  10-26-06
 
“This back injury has limited everything in my life.  I have my mom come over and help me.  She cleans my toilet and everything I can’t do anymore.”  10-26-06
 
“They say they can’t afford equipment to help us lift but the boss comes riding in on a Harley.  CNA's start at $8.00 an hour.  I say, how much do you make?”  10-26-06
 
“It's the hardest thing I've ever been through.  There is a lot of stigma that comes with an injured worker.  My back hurts everyday, bad.  There are some days I don't want to get out of bed, but I do it anyway.”  10-26-06 
 
“Lift equipment only makes sense.  It’s so much safer for the nurses, and for the patients.”  10-21-06
 
“One of the nurses with a neck injury came back after a year, into doing paperwork.  When she couldn’t return to her position with the lifting, they let her go.”  10-20-06
 
“You and I were too early to benefit from the efforts that will save so many from ruined careers.  Yours is a proud legacy, one that will hopefully prevent any nurse or aide from ever going under the knife because of lifting a patient.”  9-30-06  
 
"I still have my days when I feel sad that I cannot function as I used to.  Even shopping takes it right out of me - or should I say, out of my back!  I estimate that I function at about 25% of what I used to be able to do.  It is a really pitiful legacy of having CARED for others, literally giving my body for their well-being."  9-30-06”  
 
"I feel that more nurses should be educated in the ‘no manual lifting.’  Believe it or not, I was not aware of it until my injury.  I never knew how many great mechanical lifting devices existed. There really needs to be more awareness and more nurses involved.  There is progress in numbers."  9-30-06 
 
"I'm appalled at the amount of nurses that are injured related to lifting injuries.  You would think that caring physicians and hospitals would be more diligent."  9-30-06
 
“In my work I’ve known a lot of injured nurses and they just get the boot.  They’re kicked to the curb.”  9-28-06
 
“A lot of my friends are nurses and they all have bad backs.  My friend has to take Percocet to play tennis.”  9-28-06
 
“The hospital administrator said, ‘We’re too busy helping people to be safe.’ ”  9-28-06
 
“A 19-year-old CNA blew out two discs lifting a 250 pound resident.  I said you’ve got to quit injuring these young people.”  9-28-06
 
“Look what they’ve done in factories where people don’t lift anything.  They have machines and move things with their finger.  They don’t use muscles to move things, they use their finger to punch a button.”  9-17-06
 
“The societal cost and the impact on people’s lives from the injuries are tremendous.”  9-7-06
 
“Twenty years ago, my friend worked in a care home.  When an 80-year-old lady was about to fall, she caught her and had a real bad back injury.  The care home wouldn’t cover her injury.  They said, ‘We have a protocol to let them fall.  You should have let her fall.’  My friend has been on disability all these years from that injury.”  8-19-06
 
“A woman has fallen three times.  The staff pick her up off the floor.  They don’t have equipment, so they just lift.”  8-19-06
 
“It can be a downward spiral for nurses after getting injured, losing their work, and often becoming depressed.  Nurses can lose what has been their life, from lifting which they should not be doing.”  8-18-06
 
“I was in a meeting with the newly formed state steering committee for safe lift.  I told the committee that the reason I got interested in this was because I had a friend from Coos Bay named Annie Hudson who kept talking about this years ago.  At the time I thought you were crazy thinking the hospitals would do this, but it's happening!!!”  8-17-06
 
“I’m doing in-home care giving for a quadriplegic person.  They have a lift in the ceiling.  I don’t lift so it’s easy.”  8-17-06
 
“I saw a program on TV showing ceiling lifts in a hospital where they have lifts in 75% of the patient rooms.  I sat there with my aching back thinking it is so simple.  Why didn’t they do this years ago?  I could still be working.”  8-6-06
 
“I’m doing care giving again after my back injury but these people have a lift at home so I don’t lift.”  8-4-06
 
“When I worked in assisted living, they didn’t have lift equipment.  There were so many good people injured.  This has been needed for such a long time.”  8-3-06  
 
“When you’re injured, they say ‘We don’t have light duty’ and that’s the end of it.”  7-22-06
“I’m starting care giving again.  I love taking care of old people, but now my back is hurting again.”  2-22-07
 
“We have gait belts.  And they teach you to stand behind people, to be ready to catch them, and let them slide down your body, if they fall.”  2-22-07
 
“I quit CNA work at the care center because of lifting.  There were two-person lifts that they wanted me to do alone.  They expected me to lift people twice my size by myself.  I said I’m not doing it.”  2-22-07
 
“You are the vanguard for healthcare workers’ safety.”  2-15-07
 
“A young 20-year-old nurse aid had surgery for two discs that ruptured from lifting a patient.  She was planning to go into nursing but not anymore, not after being injured so bad.  She said I’m too young for this.”  2-14-07
 
“It’s business.  Nurses when they get injured are put out like any other worker.  Hospitals are businesses.  It’s all about the money.”  2-14-07
 
“What you trained to do, what you moved heaven and earth to be allowed to do, is gone.  You fought to get that.  You fought to keep your job, but it’s gone.  Getting disabled by lifting leaves you out of nursing and in pain.  It has to crush you.”  2-3-07     
 
“I can’t put my mother-in-law to bed anymore.  My back hurts and I can’t do that.  I can’t roll her over to change her diaper.  The aides struggle, leaning across the hospital bed.  It has to hurt their back.  Underpaid, overworked, how can they keep on being so nice?”  2-3-07
 
“Every time there’s a new nurse, I whip out your book and say, to let you know we’re serious about back injuries.  Same with the new unit manager.  I whipped out your book and said, to be sure we’re on the same page about back injuries.”  1-28-07
 
“Nurses are getting older and they’re more vulnerable.  You’d think they would keep us for our experience, but they don’t.  They want to get rid of us because we cost them more money.  All the nurses are new on my old unit.  New nurses are teaching the younger ones.  It’s scary.”  1-27-07
 
“In our department, we have nothing, no equipment to move them.  We just drag them over.”  1-27-07
 
“I hurt my brachial plexus nerve pulling about a 300 or 400 pound woman to sit up in bed.  The workers’ comp doctor put down that it was my shoulder.  Then, they tested my shoulder and said full range of motion.  I got nothing for it but still can’t use my hand and arm like before.”  1-26-07
 
“I can tell you that what you’re doing is making a difference in patient care.  It’s really helping.  Keep up the good work.”  1-26-07
 
“In the OR, we use an air matt for moving really obese patients, but with other regular patients we still move them ourselves.”  1-25-07
 
“It is my opinion that injured nurses can benefit corporations dramatically with their knowledge.  But the problem is, these corporations can hire someone else for a lot less money.  It is all about money and not the people or the patients.”  1-24-07
 
“I have an under 20 pound lift limit and other restrictions.  My job said I can't come back unless I can do 100%.  I know I will always have back pain.  I’m doing exercises and stretches daily to be as flexible as I can.  I also have severe sciatic nerve damage.”  1-19-07 
 
“I think that the hospitals need to address RN's already injured with chronic back problems.  At my local hospital, a couple years ago, they decided there was absolutely NO LIGHT DUTY at all for RN's.  So, it’s either do your job or leave....”  1-18-07
 
“I really thank you for saving our backs.  This was a long time in coming.  You've done terrific, and stated all the facts very eloquently and surprisingly so true and scary when you see it on paper!!!!!”  1-18-07
 
“Safer moving and handling is possible with the right attitude and well-maintained equipment.  I am sure there are many nurses like myself who would still be working in a job that we loved had we avoided back injury while at work.”  1-17-07
 
“Thank you for all the information on moving and handling.  I know this will all help with my in-service and plan to drive the message home regarding safe moving and handling.”  1-14-07
 
“You just don’t get it, until it happens to you.”  1-13-07
 
“Your book helped me a lot.  It was a real eye-opener!”  1-3-07
 
“Not reporting injuries enables employers to keep hurting people.”  1-3-07
 
“I’m a nurse with a hurt back from work.  I didn’t claim my injury because I wanted to keep my job.  My co-workers are great people and help me when they see that I’m hurting.”  1-3-07
 
“I think that last move was just the ‘final straw’ from years of cumulative lifting.  I limp from pain down my leg.”  1-3-07
 
“My mother is a nurse.  Her skull was messed up.  Her back and skull were all messed up by somebody hopped up on crack in the ER.”  1-2-07
 
“I know many back-injured nurses, especially ones who have worked the hospital setting, who just accept back injury as being part of a nurse's job!!  One nurse had about four or five back surgeries, and just plugs along doing her job!!!  I believe my neck/back will just continue deteriorating until I will eventually be forced out of nursing all together and be forced to deal with the government and their BS!!!”  12-30-06
  
“With my neck and back injuries sustained working as a nurse, I pray to remain working as long as possible; I try to believe that what I do good for people will come around and take care of me eventually.”  12-30-06
 
“Individuals in poor finances or in poor health are not given much consideration.  In disasters, large numbers of victims are visible and get help, but injured nurses are scattered.  If they were together where they could all be seen, they’d get more attention and might get some help.”  12-23-06
 
“I saw your letter in American Nurse.  I never knew your whole story.  It’s surprising that nurses don’t talk about these things.  There’s so much secrecy around injuries, things we should be talking about.”  12-23-06  
 
“Just thought you might like to know that your stories are being noticed by other injured workers in the world.  http://wcbcanada.com/modules/WCB-BB/viewtopic.php?t=3424”  12-19-06
 
“Someone needs to study the economic impact of injury to the community.  I don’t buy new cars or land anymore.  Think what happens to the restaurants.  I don’t eat out anymore.  I just don’t buy things.  It’s an economic disaster when someone with a good wage, like an RN, can’t work anymore.”  12-18-06
 
“One nurse wrecked her back and took a big pay cut to go work for a nursing home.”  12-18-06 
 
“A nurse I knew hurt her back and committed suicide.  She became extremely depressed in her situation and committed suicide.  She had pain medication and that can make you depressed.  Until I was injured and lost my job, I couldn’t understand.  Now I can definitely see how it could happen.  It can be because of chronic pain and from chronic grief for what she lost. ”  12-18-07
 
“My nurse friend has had three spinal fusions and never filed for workers’ comp.  She said she got care from her regular insurance instead of going through the ‘pain clinic concentration camp’ and everything else workers’ comp puts you through.”  12-18-06
 
“Truck drivers do a lot of things besides just driving.  They load and unload, raise hoods, tailgates, do chains, and lots of things.  The doctor said my back injuries from nursing were worse than any truck driver’s back he’s ever seen.”  12-18-06
 
“Thank you for all your work on behalf of injured nurses.”  12-16-06
 
“After 35 years of nursing, I have chronic low back pain and stiffness with multiple bulging discs per MRI.  My cervical spine also has several bulging discs and severe degenerative changes.  I’ve been off caring for a family member and dread the risk of more injury when I return to work.”  12-16-06
 
“No hospitals in my area have lift teams or widespread use of assistive devices.”  12-16-06
 
“The notion that hospitals are humanitarian is false…it’s an industry.  They’re in it for the bucks, the big bucks.”  12-4-06
 
“All nurses will have a back injury if they work the floor long enough.  Every nurse I know has a back problem.”  11-24-06
 
“I’m a nurse with two herniated discs.  I don’t know if lifting patients did it, but it sure didn’t help.  Now I can’t ride my horses or lift anything at all.”  11-24-06
 
“I think it’s horrible the way injured healthcare professionals are treated.  They’re all just kicked out the door.”  11-24-06
 
“A lot is being written today about the devastation to nurses’ lives caused by injuries from lifting.”  11-22-06
 
“After I injured my back they said be careful.  But how can you be careful with your back when you have to lift people?  It’s part of your job.  You have to do it.”  11-17-06
 
“The doctor didn’t do an x-ray, MRI, or any test.  He said if everybody got an MRI, they’d all have a ruptured disk.  But it was my back, my leg going numb, and my bowels not in control.  I went to another doctor, and got out of nursing.”  11-17-06 
 
“It never made sense, with the number of nurses in health care, why we are not a powerful group.  We should be pulling elections.  We should have power.  We’re so busy getting injured that we don’t have a backbone.  It is shocking.  You feel so discarded.”  11-1-06
 
“I was scheduled for spine surgery but workers’ comp said they wanted another IME.  So I went to that and now I have to appeal their denial again.  My doctors want me to have a discogram but workers' comp is refusing to review the request.”  10-26-06
 
“This back injury has limited everything in my life.  I have my mom come over and help me.  She cleans my toilet and everything I can’t do anymore.”  10-26-06
 
“They say they can’t afford equipment to help us lift but the boss comes riding in on a Harley.  CNA's start at $8.00 an hour.  I say, how much do you make?”  10-26-06
 
“It's the hardest thing I've ever been through.  There is a lot of stigma that comes with an injured worker.  My back hurts everyday, bad.  There are some days I don't want to get out of bed, but I do it anyway.”  10-26-06 
 
“Lift equipment only makes sense.  It’s so much safer for the nurses, and for the patients.”  10-21-06
 
“One of the nurses with a neck injury came back after a year, into doing paperwork.  When she couldn’t return to her position with the lifting, they let her go.”  10-20-06
 
“You and I were too early to benefit from the efforts that will save so many from ruined careers.  Yours is a proud legacy, one that will hopefully prevent any nurse or aide from ever going under the knife because of lifting a patient.”  9-30-06  
 
"I still have my days when I feel sad that I cannot function as I used to.  Even shopping takes it right out of me - or should I say, out of my back!  I estimate that I function at about 25% of what I used to be able to do.  It is a really pitiful legacy of having CARED for others, literally giving my body for their well-being."  9-30-06”  
 
"I feel that more nurses should be educated in the ‘no manual lifting.’  Believe it or not, I was not aware of it until my injury.  I never knew how many great mechanical lifting devices existed. There really needs to be more awareness and more nurses involved.  There is progress in numbers."  9-30-06 
 
"I'm appalled at the amount of nurses that are injured related to lifting injuries.  You would think that caring physicians and hospitals would be more diligent."  9-30-06
 
“In my work I’ve known a lot of injured nurses and they just get the boot.  They’re kicked to the curb.”  9-28-06
 
“A lot of my friends are nurses and they all have bad backs.  My friend has to take Percocet to play tennis.”  9-28-06
 
“The hospital administrator said, ‘We’re too busy helping people to be safe.’ ”  9-28-06
 
“A 19-year-old CNA blew out two discs lifting a 250 pound resident.  I said you’ve got to quit injuring these young people.”  9-28-06
 
“Look what they’ve done in factories where people don’t lift anything.  They have machines and move things with their finger.  They don’t use muscles to move things, they use their finger to punch a button.”  9-17-06
 
“The societal cost and the impact on people’s lives from the injuries are tremendous.”  9-7-06
 
“Twenty years ago, my friend worked in a care home.  When an 80-year-old lady was about to fall, she caught her and had a real bad back injury.  The care home wouldn’t cover her injury.  They said, ‘We have a protocol to let them fall.  You should have let her fall.’  My friend has been on disability all these years from that injury.”  8-19-06
 
“A woman has fallen three times.  The staff pick her up off the floor.  They don’t have equipment, so they just lift.”  8-19-06
 
“It can be a downward spiral for nurses after getting injured, losing their work, and often becoming depressed.  Nurses can lose what has been their life, from lifting which they should not be doing.”  8-18-06
 
“I was in a meeting with the newly formed state steering committee for safe lift.  I told the committee that the reason I got interested in this was because I had a friend from Coos Bay named Annie Hudson who kept talking about this years ago.  At the time I thought you were crazy thinking the hospitals would do this, but it's happening!!!”  8-17-06
 
“I’m doing in-home care giving for a quadriplegic person.  They have a lift in the ceiling.  I don’t lift so it’s easy.”  8-17-06
 
“I saw a program on TV showing ceiling lifts in a hospital where they have lifts in 75% of the patient rooms.  I sat there with my aching back thinking it is so simple.  Why didn’t they do this years ago?  I could still be working.”  8-6-06
 
“I’m doing care giving again after my back injury but these people have a lift at home so I don’t lift.”  8-4-06
 
“When I worked in assisted living, they didn’t have lift equipment.  There were so many good people injured.  This has been needed for such a long time.”  8-3-06  
 
“When you’re injured, they say ‘We don’t have light duty’ and that’s the end of it.”  7-22-06
 

“You and your camp ARE making a difference.  Not often, and not many people, can say they individually helped provide the impetus for national change.  Good job!”  6-25-06
 
"I was off work for three months on an unpaid medical leave due to a herniated L4/L5.  After the three months my chiropractor said I could go back to work with light duty.  I was not allowed light duty, and they would not extend my leave.  Their leave policy says I would not be guaranteed my position at the end of the leave.  I understood that part.  Supposedly they were helping to find another position which does not require lifting, i.e., case management for example.  I was not able to find a position, and I have checked all the current job listings.  I have been terminated.  My next step is to apply for unemployment, and try to find some other nursing work I can do."  6-11-06 
 
"It is definitely important to have legislation introduced regarding safe patient handling, no manual lift.  Before I took my last position I was offered a job at a medical center in a healthcare corporation which does provide lifting equipment on the units in their facilities.  However, I did have to lift 50 pounds during the physical exam.  I suffered for that for quite a while.  Those kinds of job description requirements should be eliminated.  Nursing Assistants have it much worse regarding lifting."  6-11-06 
 
“These injuries, which could be prevented, are ripping off the injured and costing a lot of workers' comp money.  Stopping the injuries would be a net benefit to the healthcare industry.  Beats all I've ever seen."   6-14-06
 
“My sister’s a nurse and had to have back surgery years ago.  She’s the head nurse now but still throws in with the rest of them when it gets busy.”  5-20-06
 
“A woman I know became a nurse and was disabled within two years.”  5-19-06
 
“One of the nurses is out with her third injury, this time her neck.  Her doctor told her one more injury and she’ll be out of nursing.”   5-11-06
 
“After two nerve blocks and still substantial pain…I have learned much through this process but lack support which of course is part of what I have learned.”  5-10-06
 
“I am striving to implement a Safe Lift Program at our hospital.  Nursing staff is somewhat resistant…but some have adopted it.   Thank you for sharing your story and for fighting for this basic right of health care workers.”  5-10-06
 
“Our hospital has one old Hoyer lift.  Can’t they afford some new equipment?”  5-9-06
 
“I tell patients, you have to help move yourself.  If I can’t get them up, I get someone else to help.  You have to take care of yourself.  It’s for sure no one else is going to.”  5-9-06
 
“There’s no help for a nurse who gets hurt.  When they’re done with you, they’re done, and you’re out.”  5-7-06
 
“The hospital is really trying.  They have a lot of new lift equipment.”  5-7-06
 
“I have been reading your book, very good information and facts.”  5-7-06
 
“It’s only smart that they’re passing legislation.  I don’t know why they didn’t do it years ago because it will prevent injuries and injuries are what cost money.”  4-28-06
 
“One moment’s indiscretion with lifting can mean a lifetime of regret.”  4-28-06
 
“Today, someone told me what a good nurse I had been to their mother when she was gravely ill.  I cried because I’m not there at the bedside anymore.  My back injury stole my hospital career.”  4-26-06
 
“There are so many injured nurses.  It’s so bad.  You see somebody limping or holding their back and you say, Are you a nurse?”  4-14-06
 
“1.8 tons of lifting per shift!  I can’t believe that all nurses don’t look like weight lifters!”  4-3-06
 
“I see that the ball’s rolling with legislation.  It must feel good to know that things are finally changing for the better!”  4-3-06
 
“It's the psyche of people, the way women are viewed, as more vulnerable.  When you go in with an attitude of assistance and help, with the situation that's happening, when your whole thought is focused on them, you're not thinking of yourself.  So how vulnerable can you get?”  4-3-06
 
“It is great to see that the physical lifting of patients is being addressed as an unacceptable risk to nurses and that the adoption of a No Lifting approach as the best system of addressing this risk is being embraced.”  4-3-06
 
“Injury from lifting patients is one of the worst societal disasters we face today, a situation of tremendous discrimination, and lots of hidden agendas.”  3-26-06
 
“I wish when it first happened, that I had got a lawyer and challenged my diagnosis of ‘lumbar sprain.’  Later, MRIs showed two herniations but the work comp records still say ‘lumbar sprain.’  My case might have gone better if I had a lawyer and the records said the correct diagnosis, but I believed they were helping me and that it would all be okay.”  3-24-06 
 
“If you’re injured, you’re out.  They won’t re-hire anyone with a back injury.”  3-24-06
 
“There’s not much action on lifting injuries because the nurses get blinked out one at a time.  If they all went out injured at once, there’d be an outcry.”  3-24-06
 
“Here we are, past the Industrial Revolution, and still require manual labor of nurses resulting in thousands of injuries.  Most other industries dealing with heavy materials have incorporated mechanical means to more effectively and efficiently perform work without injury to workers.  This is not to dehumanize patients, but rather to emphasize that 400 lbs is 400 lbs.”  3-24-06
 
“There’s only one Hoyer lift in the nursing home.  The nurse aides wear these belts with hooks in the front for lifting.  Every time I see it, I cringe.  When I try to tell them about back safety, they just look at me.  They’re young and think they can’t get hurt.  They don’t get it.”  3-18-06 
 
“I went for 20 years without an injury and then boom, no matter how careful I had been.  There goes my retirement.  I was banking on retiring from there.”  3-18-06 
 
“I saved a patient from a fall and, the way it happened, probably saved the hospital and the doctor from a lawsuit, and they went on their merry way.  It is my life that’s ruined.”  3-18-06
 
“You hear so much talk about the nursing shortage, how bad it is, and yet there are all of these nurses who get fired when they get injured.”  3-17-06 
 
“As far as my back goes, it is not good.  I have a tremendous amount of pain and am becoming more limited in function.  I still try to go to the pool at least twice a week but my exercises are ridiculously minimal.  Basically, I walk in the water about 10 minutes and do arm exercises and that's all.  When I think back to how active I used to be what I'm able to do now seems like a joke.”  3-17-06
 
“Each year more people are doing things.  Each year there’s more excitement for no lift policies.”  3-13-06
 
“As a veterinarian, picking up calves and lifting Saint Bernards up onto the table, you’d better have some muscle.  I can see why there’s a problem with people, too, when they’re sick and can’t move themselves.  You’d better have some muscle!”  3-13-06
 
“One nurse is off with her second back injury.  Another hurt her back and is on light duty, I don’t know for how long, doing paperwork, not taking patients or doing any lifting.”  3-3-06
 
“I’ve seen them hire people right off the street to work in the offices who climb right up the ladder, big time, into top positions, with very little education.  Why don’t they do that with nurses, and use all of their knowledge, instead of getting rid of the nurses who get hurt?”  3-3-06
 
“Because nurses are caring people, if they really looked at how dangerous the lifting is, they’d have to quit.”  3-2-06
 
“My sister was a nurse for 30 years.  Both of her thumb joints are shot from pumping up blood pressure cuffs.  She got a bad back from lifting, pulling, bending, and twisting, and varicose veins from being on her feet, pounding the halls hour after hour after hour.”  3-1-06
 
“You have one chance.  You have a good back and then you’re on the other side of it – one chance!”  3-1-06
 
“Just because you can lift doesn’t mean you should.”  3-1-06
 
“Sometimes it seems that change is such a hassle that you just keep on doing what you’ve done all along.”  3-1-06

Apathy on stopping preventable injuries from patient lifting is perplexing, but may be partially explained by many nurses being unaware of how and why patient lifting damages spinal discs and vertebral endplates, info which is little publicized.  Many nurses may believe they are only at risk of sprains and strains and may be oblivious to the extreme risk of serious spinal damage they are subjected to with patient lifting, which can occur over time, without perception of pain, until "too late" when sudden severe pain announces a spinal injury.  If the very real danger to their physical well-being and nursing career is known and understood by nurses, they should feel compelled to act to protect themselves, including lobbying for state and national legislation against hazardous manual patient lifting.  It is time for nurses to demand that patient handling practice be based on scientific evidence which has proven that no manual patient lifting is safe.  It is past time to transfer hazardous lifting from the backs of healthcare workers to machines designed for the task.            
 
“From being a patient for 10 days, it was appalling, in addition to all of the lifting, pushing, and pulling, all the bending nurses do, for taking blood pressure, reading the oxygen monitor, checking IV sites, everything requires bending over.”  2-25-06 
 
“I worked in a home for the developmentally disabled where my wrist was damaged by lifting people.  The surgeon wanted to fuse my wrist with a bone graft from my hip but I wouldn’t be able to bend my wrist anymore, so I didn’t do that.  Workers’ comp retrained me to be a pharmacy tech and gave me ‘ergo-arms’ for my desk, to support my arms.”  2-8-06
 
“We have empathy for our patients but apathy for ourselves.  Those with back injuries just go away and we turn our heads.  Now, it’s not us, it’s you who has the problem.”  1-22-06
 
“There’s a new worker born every second, so out with the old, in with the new.  It’s all about money, not the nurse's health and life.  Wreck ‘em.  Can ‘em.  Buy some more.”  1-10-06
 
“I have degenerative disc disease and a 10 lb lifting restriction that I’ll have to live with the rest of my life.  It is from all the lifting.  But I am very lucky.  They gave me a permanent modified duty position.”  1-8-06  
 
“If you’re hurt, and can’t do the lifting, you’re out.  The hospital doesn’t do anything to help nurses stay with them.  You’re just out.”  1-6-06 

 “Thank you for being our advocate.  We appreciate it.  Patients are getting so heavy.  We used to think 225 to 250 lbs was heavy.  Now we handle 300 lb people every day.”  12-31-05
 
“You are doing a wonderful work for nurses.  Keep it up.”  12-31-05
 
“I’ve been bit, hit, scratched, and threatened to be shot.  And, now, my back is disabled from lifting patients.  Nursing is a very dangerous job.”  12-30-05  
 
“The nurse recruiter told me we can’t use you if you can’t lift 100 lbs.  All the nurses have to do this.  They send you to a functional capacities evaluation with PT watching you.”  12-30-05
 
“I have bulging discs with chronic pain from lifting patients.  If I do the least thing, it feels like a knife in my back.  Nursing has totally ruined me and it’s a shame because I just love nursing.”  12-30-05
 
“With my back injury, I’m trying to figure out what else I can do to stay in nursing and it’s just not easy.  At least another injury years ago gave me the foresight to purchase disability insurance.”  12-30-05
 
“I am so proud of you and your work.  More need to know about what you are doing for the healthcare workers safety on the job.  Keep it up and congratulations to you.”  12-29-05
 
“As we chip away at the old paradigm [of manual lifting] it will one day be destroyed.”  12-27-05
 
“From my nursing work, I have carpal tunnel and tendonitis in my shoulder.  I drop things, can’t dress myself, and can’t even cut a piece of meat.  The workers’ comp doctor said, As long as you can talk and walk and can lift a cup of tea to your lips, you are not disabled.”  12-4-05
 
“I got awards, always got there early, always helped other nurses.  Now people think you’re faking.  When I go out, I have to come home and lie down.  My neck’s killing me, my arms are numb.  To have people tell me I’m lying, it’s been like a kick in the butt.  I know there are a lot of others worse off and I should count my blessings, but there’s always the pain.”  11-27-05
 
“There is life after back injury but it might take a long time.”  11-14-05 
 
“Sometimes it’s the 100 lb patients that are the worst, grabbing you around the neck, asking you to get them up by yourself.”  10-29-05
 
“After all these years as a nurse, I hurt my back on what seemed like a minor lift.  In ER they said lumbar strain.  Now I have pain down my leg and might need some tests.”  10-29-05
 
“Our manager said since we’ve had the class and are trained on the equipment, if we get hurt, it will be our fault.  There’s still a lot of lifting.  If we get hurt, they’ll find a way to blame us.”  10-29-05
 
“I’ve had my second back surgery.  When I was injured, my supervisor tried to get me to sign a paper saying it wasn’t work related.  My doctor says I can never go back to work at the hospital, my back is too bad.  When I lose my benefits, I’ll have to pay over $400 a month for insurance.  How am I going to do that when we’re not making it now?”  10-28-05 
 
“When I saw the hoist, my wife and I both said ‘no hoist’ and asked them to do it, to transfer me.  Then they dropped me.”  10-26-05
 
“In over fifteen years with workers’ comp safety, I’ve seen us pay out $100,000 to $200,000 for a single claim when back injury is a problem throughout the whole healthcare industry.”  10-20-05
 
“They’ve got it turned around backwards.  Mechanical lifting should be taught first as the correct method.  Manual lifting should be taught for emergencies, if there’s a power failure or broken equipment, or some critical situation, then use manual lifting, and just hope your back doesn’t go out of whack.”  10-19-05
 
“To go from manual to mechanical lifting is more costly in the beginning and they don’t want to spend the money.  It’s greed because they have to spend money on the equipment.  Maybe they need to hire a technician to operate the equipment instead of coming under the duties that nurses learn.  It should be a separate type of worker.”  10-19-05 
 
“My nurse friend has had her second cervical spine surgery from lifting patients.  She can hardly turn her head now and asks, What’s going to happen to me when I can’t move at all?”  10-13-05
 
“You’re making a difference.  You are really changing how things are done.”  10-10-05
 
“I just had a baby and thought it was odd how they lifted me onto the table.  There were several of them lifting.  I was surprised.  It never occurred to me that they would lift me like that.”  10-10-05
 
“Change is coming.  My former employer is working with their broken nurses.  Your book is in their library.”  10-8-05
 
“It’s my back.  I bent over to lift and when I came back up, I wasn’t the same.”  10-6-05
 
“That’s stupid to make nurses lift until they’re broken -- with a nurse shortage?  Nurses are more than that.  They’re not just lifters and handmaidens like they were once thought of.”  10-5-05
 
“Every nurse on my unit has a bad back.”  10-5-05
 
“We had a patient so big that it took 10 nurses to turn him.”  9-27-05
 
“The nurses and CNAs call in and stay off with their back for a day or two.  Working part time, you can recover.  The ones who work full-time have it hard.  It’s the day after day lifting that takes a toll.”  9-27-05
 
“I was in on a meeting where the hospital CEO said $2 million a year on injuries was a reasonable expenditure.”  9-26-05
 
“Interesting that OSHA has recommendations on how much to lift and the whole healthcare industry is exempt, or not looked at, or whatever.”  9-21-05
 
“You need to be a body builder on steroids to lift weight like that.”  9-21-05
 
“Preventing injuries has always cost less.  For some reason, it’s hard for them to put the nuts and bolts together.”  9-17-05
 
“I am amazed that the USA still treats nurses as manual lifts!!  I would like to know how to help in the war on ‘nurse terrorism’ called needless injuries.”  9-15-05
 
“Keep up the good work!”  9-15-05
 
“One of the nurses is out with her third neck surgery from patient handling.  She might not be able to come back this time.”  9-15-05
 
“I have just ordered your book and look forward to receiving it.”  9-15-05

 “My wife learned all about it, with lifting people, when she worked as a nursing assistant for four years.”  8-30-05 
 
“CNAs are used and abused.  My niece is off work recovering from a couple of surgeries from lifting patients.  She doesn’t know if she’ll be able to go back.”  8-30-05    
 
“My back is sore from lifting patients in the OR, in the worst positions, in our ‘no lift’ hospital.”  8-30-05
 
“The work you are doing for nurses is a great service and should be publicized.”  8-26-05
 
“I think it is wonderful what you are doing.  It is not easy to dis-entrench practices which have been around in medicine for many years.”  8-25-05
 
“Doctors have known all along that the lifting isn’t good.”  8-25-05
            Medical schools include instruction on damage to the spine from compressive and shearing forces with lifting excessive amounts of weight in awkward positions.  This information is not provided by nursing schools which teach manual patient lifting and do not inform students that lifting patients is a hazardous risk of spinal injury which could easily lead to disability.                    
 
“My hospital started doing strength testing with lifting but had to quit because the first dozen people all got injured doing the test.”  8-25-05         
 
“I worked at a nursing home until I hurt my back.  We had a lot of residents who needed to be lifted, two-person lifts, a lot of them.  I was taking classes to go into nursing but hurt my back.  It was killing me and I had to quit the nursing home.  That's not why I went to school, with all the hard work, just to give it up.  But there was nothing else I could do.  So, I put in my two weeks notice.  Now I’m considering options in nursing.  I wanted to go into maternity nursing.  It all depends on how it goes with my back.  I just want to not feel so crippled.”  8-24-05

“Where I work, they don’t lift anymore.  When somebody falls, they don’t lift, no matter where they are.  They go get the equipment.  I’m already injured so I don’t work in that part anymore.”  8-17-05
 
“Those of us nurses who think we’re safe are fooling themselves.  It could be any of us who gets hurt.”  8-17-05
 
“We have equipment now but nurses are in such a habit of lifting.  When a 500 lb patient fell in close quarters, nurses gathered to lift her but then stopped and started to discuss the best way to get her up.  We got the lift and eventually figured out how we could use it with this large patient in the small space.”  8-17-05 
 
“What you are promoting with ‘No Manual Lifting’ is a winner – nurses, patients, and insurance companies.  Everybody wins.”  8-17-05
 
“Workers’ comp takes so long to get approval.  When you’re in pain, you don’t feel like waiting to get something done.”   8-6-05
 
“Your work is helping to change things for others.”  7-30-05
 
“Our hospital is supposed to be no-lift, but nurses still lift.  When a patient is down on the floor, a bunch gathers and lifts.  No one thinks to get the equipment.  They just think about getting the patient up, not about keeping themselves from a back injury.”  7-29-05
 
“It’s amazing the pattern I’ve seen in healthcare and other industries that don’t use equipment even when they know the cost benefit of preventing injuries.  What do they have to gain by allowing people to get hurt?”  7-27-05
 
“As a physician, I’ve seen so many injured nurses.”  7-27-05
 
“I like putting it as ‘safe patient handling.’  That gets their attention because it is patients that make them money.  Nurses don’t make them money.  If nurses get hurt, they just get more.”  7-26-05
 
“My first back injury was when another nurse and I were getting a man up and he collapsed.  I reached out and tried to grab him.  It was instinctive, to try to keep him from falling.  That’s how I first hurt my back.”  7-26-05
 
“It’s frightening to work as a nurse.  One thing is the carpet.  Pushing the code cart on carpet slows down getting to the patient.”  7-23-05
 
“So glad to see so many other States falling into line with the Texas legislation for safe patient handling!  Fantastic - even if it saves one nurse from suffering from these injuries!”  7-22-05
 
“When I was teaching nursing students, I always told them you are number one.  Your safety comes first.  How can you help patients if you get hurt?”  7-19-05
 
"I was a hospital floor nurse until a back injury put me out of work.  When I started looking for another job, no one would hire me.  It was humiliating.  I finally found other nursing work, but it is not what I would have chosen.  I miss hospital nursing.”  7-14-05
 
“It’s easy to see why nurses get injured.  It’s hard lifting and pulling people around.”  7-11-05
 
“I’m taking your book to the nursing school, for their library.”  7-10-05 
 
"I've been injured twice from lifting patients, in my back and neck and in my right shoulder.  The pain will continue as long as I keep lifting patients, as long as I work as a floor nurse."   7-8-05
 
"As an injured RN and paramedic both, I am treated as a 'multiple pariah' in both fields."  7-8-05
 
“My sister-in-law is a nursing assistant and hurt her back.  She couldn’t do it anymore and had to quit.”  7-8-05
 
“One of our nurses was off six months with her back and nearly did it again the first day she was back.  At least now we have a couple of male assistants to help with the lifting.”   7-8-05 
 
“We have some lift equipment but you can get into situations.  The other day, a patient thought they could make it but gave out half way through the transfer.”  7-8-05   
 
“I didn’t know they would fire registered nurses who get hurt and can’t lift.  With all of their knowledge, that’s awful.”   7-8-05
 
“I too am a BIN.  Thank you for your time and interest in getting this much needed information out.”   7-7-05
 
“I am a nurse disabled with a shoulder injury. That was the straw that broke the camels back. I was out before that for 6 months with a back injury.”  7-7-05

“I took care of a paraplegic man at home for over two years.  He had a lift that was just great.  I took him everywhere with it, to the chair, to the commode, and sometimes into the bathtub to bathe.  Sometimes I told him, ’It’s time to hang around for a while,’ when I needed to change the bed.  The lift was great.  It helped me move him all over the place.”   6-24-05
 
"I was treated like a pariah by my hospital administration.  I had their legal 'dream team' descend on me.  I basically got paid a small sum to go away, literally, as I was forced to quit, and never return, as part of the agreement."  6-20-05
 
“In Pharmacy, we lift boxes sometimes with 12 1-liter IV bags.  I try not to do that by taking just one or two IV bags at a time.”  6-17-05
 
“Several in housekeeping have been out with their necks and shoulders.”  6-17-05
 
“I’ve been working toward my nursing degree but this makes me think about it again.”  6-17-05
 
“I didn’t realize I had so much invested as a hospital nurse.  When I left, I felt like I was worthless, going from a good-paying job with health insurance and benefits, to nothing.”  6-12-05
 
“Every now and then I get your book out and read parts again.  Like you pointed out, men in warehouses moving boxes are provided mechanical equipment, but not nurses moving people.  That’s not good.”  6-12-05 
 
“I told a graduating student nurse use the lift equipment, and make sure you have enough help, or you can end up being thrown away as an educated piece of trash if you hurt your back."   5-31-05
 
“Keep up that great work.  You have been such a good help to the many back-injured nurses.”   5-26-05 
 
“I was transferring a large man with a co-worker.  As the man went down, my co-worker, who was also a large man, did not have control of him.  I’m small but I caught the man and took the whole load.  That’s how I hurt my back.”  5-17-05
 
“My wife is thinking about leaving nursing.  She’s had two back surgeries and needs her shoulder repaired.”  5-13-05
 
“I’ve been a med/surg nurse for a couple of years.  My back hurts all the time.”  5-13-05
 
“I hurt my lower back lifting people in the nursing home.  Now I drag my right leg and my right foot is cold.  The lift tilted over on me with a 200 lb man.  It pushed me against the wall and crushed my neck.  The man didn’t get hurt but I did.  I have herniated discs in my neck and pain down my right arm.  I can’t turn my head to the side or carry a gallon of milk.  My supervisor at work gave me the wrong information and I didn’t get workers’ comp.  Most of the others I worked with were a lot taller.  Moving people from the wheelchair into bed, I had my co-worker against me, the height of the bed against me, and the weight of the human against me.  My right chest got hurt, bringing people against me to move.  I couldn’t breathe for three weeks.  The doctor said your chest is crushed.  Now I have burning pain in my chest.  I never got any workers’ comp.”  5-11-05
 
“After becoming a CNA, and working just two weeks at the nursing home, I thought, I have to find something else.  I knew my back wouldn’t hold up.”  5-8-05
 
“As a hospice nurse, I teach family members how to turn and move their loved one.”  5-8-05
     Emphasizing the need for insurance coverage of in-home lift equipment.  Ceiling lifts can be configured to take the person from room to room, including into the bathroom for toileting and lowering into the bathtub for bathing without manual lifting. 
 
“Back injuries and nurses go together.  Every nurse I know has a problem with their back.”  5-5-05
 
“I worry about my daughter-in-law in nursing school.  She’s such a little tiny thing.  I tell her be careful with your back.”  5-5-05
 
“In special needs class, we lift students all the time, wheelchair to changing table and up to the pro-walker.  I told the director we need a policy that we will only lift with two people.”  5-5-05
        Research has shown that there is little decrease in the risk of injury whether with one or two lifters because people do not lift at the same moment, or with an equal amount of effort.  Requiring two lifters would not necessarily protect from injury with lifting hazardous amounts of weight.  The solution is safe mechanical lift equipment.    
 
“We have so many young CNAs now who think they are invincible but when they get a back injury, they have it for life.”  4-30-05
 
“I worked as a nurses aide for two years.  They called me from all three floors to lift because I’m a man.”  4-29-05
 
“My shoulders were destroyed early on as a nurse but I never had a problem with my back until this year.  I woke up one morning with pain shooting like fire down my leg.”  4-28-05
 
“Back injuries are notorious in healthcare.”   4-25-05
 
“I own an adult foster home.  Sometimes I work 16 hours, and have even worked up to 20 hours a day, and do a lot of lifting with my residents.   But it’s a small business and that lift equipment costs money.  If my back goes, I hope somebody puts a gun to my head and shoots me.”   4-22-05
        Caregivers routinely jeopardize their own safety and health to provide care for others.  There is need for insurance coverage of patient lift equipment across all healthcare and residential settings, wherever dependent persons require lifting.  It has been said that the number one reason for nursing home admission is inability of family members to lift and move their loved one. 
 
“I have done fairly well since my spinal fusion, except I waited too long and have nerve damage in my right anterior thigh.”  4-21-05

“I had back surgery at 22 and then went into nursing.  That sure wasn’t very smart.  The only reason I’m still there is my unit.  I couldn’t work on med/surg or any other unit with heavy lifting.  I would have been gone a long time ago.” 
4-19-05
 
“We have a new No Back Injury policy.  Now it will go on our performance review if nurses are caught not lifting safely.” 
4-13-05
 
“I herniated three discs leaning over to lift a patient when her legs went out from under her.  My back injury caused a lot of pain during the last months of pregnancy when I was so big and especially having the baby.  There was already the labor to deal with plus the back pain.  It was awful.”  4-12-05
 
“The lots of good research and testimonials in your book helped me in court.  My lawyer submitted one of your drawings of a nurse doing a lateral transfer, which is how I hurt my back.  When my lawyer asked what I was now doing instead of ER nursing, I said home health nursing and just started boo wooing to beat the band.  It was certainly not planned or intentional but a real expression over what I was feeling.”  4-6-05
 
“Now that I’m disabled by lifting patients, and fired from my job, my old work place is advertising their new Zero Manual Lifting policy.  All we can do is hope it works for others.”  3-26-05
 
“In my position with workers’ compensation, unfortunately I see a great many injured nurses go from nursing into other types of work.”  3-22-05
 
"I am now in a Master's program, and every opportunity that I have I use zero manual lift, or no patient lift, for my topic of discussion."  3-22-05
 
“I just re-read 3 chapters of your book.  I was thinking of taking it to my
lawyer to look at."  3-16-05
 
“Thank you for your hard work!  You are helping to change the work place for nurses and I am grateful.”  3-16-05  
 
“Years ago, I worked as a nurses aide and learned how hard the work was.  I learned about the medical aspect and loved it because it was helping people, but I decided I didn’t want to do that the rest of my life.”  3-15-05
 
“A 400 lb patient is in a small private room.  There is not enough room to maneuver around to use the sit-stand lift and, really, I don’t think the lift could take her.  The large-size commode could take her, but no one can find it.  I think she could pivot transfer to the commode with help getting up but we can’t find the commode so she has to use the bedpan.  That is a disservice because it doesn’t help her to improve.  The AirPal helps a lot but it still takes four nurses to turn her onto the pan.  We face situations like this all the time.  Our unit manager said that since the hospital has equipment now, nurses will be reprimanded if we get hurt.”  3-12-05
 
“You have really championed a cause!”  3-12-05
 
“My wife is getting tired of nursing.  A 600 lb patient asked my wife to turn her, to put a pillow under her back.  My wife said she couldn’t do it and had to get four other nurses to help turn the patient.”  3-10-05 
 
“We are using the ceiling lift on a 350 lb patient.”  3-3-05
 
“When the nurses were discussing if our unit should have its own sit-stand lift, someone said what happened to Anne Hudson is the best example of why we need it.”  3-3-05
 
“Not taking safety measures that are obvious to prevent injuries for a small cost is gross negligence.”  2-27-05
 
“Our Veterans Administration hospital gave me a permanent light duty position and I am so thankful.  I think that because I work for the V.A., I have been so well taken care of, even though I was pretty severely back injured.”  2-24-05
 
“I always tried to be careful with my back.  Now that I have a back injury, I have a real appreciation for the issue.”  2-22-05 
 
“Since my injury, I have been left in an absolute mess.  Currently, I must live on less income per week than I earned for one nursing shift.”  2-19-05
 
“I had 13 residents to take care of by myself, getting them from the bed to the wheelchair, and from the wheelchair to the commode.  I had a two-handed gait belt, to get hold, to lift.  You’re still lifting with a gait belt.  For standby assist, the gait belt is to catch them if they start to fall.  One man was light, because he was so skinny, but was so tall, about 6’4”, that I was afraid he would totter over when I went to get him up.”  2-14-05

“I teach nursing Skills Lab and Clinical classes.  We'll be covering ergonomics and lifting in a few weeks.  Your information is invaluable to students!”   2-10-05

“A nurse I used to work with had a really bad back injury and became wheelchair bound.  She and her husband sold their home and moved to another town with better wheelchair access, so she could get into more places in her wheelchair.”  2-8-10

“It’s awful.  You’re injured.  You’re disposable.  And now you need an attorney.”  1-29-05

“I can’t believe this happened to me.  I didn’t get a lawyer for workers’ comp because I thought they were treating me fairly, right up until they turned me out the door.  Now I have no job and no insurance.  I’m afraid I’ll become a bag lady.”  1-22-05

“I was a transporter at the hospital until I hurt my back.  Three of the transporters had back injuries.  Two had surgery.  I don’t know how many, but a lot of people have been hurt.” 
1-19-05

“A CNA I know was hurt real bad lifting a patient.  She’s still working but as a unit secretary now.”  1-19-05 

“Getting injured on that patient messed up my life so bad I can't believe it.  I worked over 20 years for them and now can't even get a job.  I've applied everywhere and don't even get calls back.  I don’t have any insurance and can’t buy my medicine.  I don't know what I'm going to do.”  1-17-05

“People with power use it to the inth degree and it’s the same everywhere.  It isn’t illegal to injure nurses lifting patients and fire them, but it is nasty and it is evil.”  1-16-05

“There was a 400 lb man with a broken leg in the ER we had to move.  Patients are so much bigger now.  My back is already injured.  I’m holding out for surgery until there’s something better available than having cages put in.  I go to the gym to stay in shape.”  1-15-05

“Hospitals are indifferent to the needs of the working class, that is the working nurses, because management and workers think differently.  They look at us as expendable, like a light bulb.  When you go out, they throw you away, just dump you, and go get another bulb that burns.  They don’t think of you anymore.  They’ve dismissed you.  You’re gone because you’re not burning for them anymore.”  1-11-05

“My aunt was a nurse for years.  Now she can hardly move.”  1-11-05

“I received notification that I was approved for Social Security Disability.  It would have been better to receive a letter saying after today, your back is better.  After today, you're all fine.  At least disability is a good consolation prize, but getting it wasn’t easy.  It took two appeals of them denying it and almost four years from when I was injured.”  1-6-05

“We have equipment now but some nurses don’t use it.  They won’t take the extra minute or two.  They say this will be quick.  I tell them, let’s ask Anne Hudson.”  12-31-04
 
“The work you are doing is intensely important.  Not many injured workers have a voice.  You are speaking for them.” 
12-28-04
 
“You are our hero.  Your articles are posted on the unit at work.  You are a great advocate for us nurses.  Thank you and keep up the good work.”  12-24-04
 
“My mother hurt her back lifting a patient who had died.  If she worked anywhere else, she would have lost her position.  They would have said you need to go find something you can do.  She’s back to work now, still lifting.”   12-23-04
 
“My 19-year-old daughter works in a care facility.  Her back just kills her from lifting people.  They are so heavy.  I told her she has to find another job.”  12-22-04
 
"My heart is so full of grief for the many wonderful nurses that are ruined for life.  I am actually doing fairly well despite the arachnoiditis and the legal issues."  12-8-04
 
“It took us a while to get to where we wanted to be as nurses.  The options we have now that we’re injured are very closed and will be.  I think hospitals don't have injured nurses come back because then people would find out how injured they are.” 
11-29-04
 
“At settlement, workers' comp gave me a whole $4,000 for loss of earning power.”  11-29-04
 
“Nurses are really ambitious hardworking people.  They don't want to be on disability.  They want to work.  That’s why they went to nursing school.”  11-29-04
 
“Injured people are looked at as faking.  When I was in the ER for pain and muscle spasms, my nurse was a friend I had worked with for years.  She said your blood pressure sure is low for somebody's who's in a lot of pain.  Then, I went out on a good day without my cane and saw one of my doctors.  He just gave me a dirty look.”  11-29-04
 
“The workers’ comp system has turned it around backwards, making injured nurses guilty and the employer innocent.  It’s immoral, unethical, and has criminal implications.”  11-26-04
 
“